This month, skip the haunted houses and thrill rides and experience the state’s most ghostly hauntings firsthand with a visit to one of these haunted hot spots in Colorado.
Cripple Creek has always had the allure of riches, first as a gold mining town and now as a gambling haven.
Cripple Creek came to life after cowboy Bob Womack discovered gold in Poverty Gulch in 1890. Located at a lofty 9,500 foot elevation, 87 miles north of Pueblo, Cripple Creek and its neighboring town of Victor once boasted 500 mines that produced more than 22 million ounces of gold.
Cripple Creek was named a National Historic Landmark in 1961. But it’s historic buildings did not receive a boost until Colorado voters approved limited stakes gambling in 1991 and Cripple Creek experienced a revival.
As a result, gambling revenues generated funds that have gone into painstaking restoration of the Victorian-era buildings along Bennett Avenue, many of which house the city’s nine casinos.